Is the Economy Good or Bad?
Saturday, October 11th 2008 @ 9:54 AM (not yet rated)
Chances are you already have the answer. And under the weight of crushing headlines, news feeds, and truly shrinking money pools, is there any other reality about the economy? Is it Good or is it Bad?
If you believe the economy is bad, then you live in a state of fear, anxiety, and worry. No doubt you check the stock market regularly to see how low it can go. You talk about how bad it is to your friends and co-workers for more validation that it is bad. (And if you did a little "bee honest", the worst story wins in the world of "woe is me").
The conversation goes something like this: "I haven't had any sales in a month! Can it get any worse? When will this economy turn around so I can get some money coming in? Did you read today's paper? Layoffs, bank bailouts, foreclosures. No wonder my business is soo bad!"
Congratulations, you may win the prize. There is a partial payoff to worrying and bad news that is reinforcing to the habit. As Daniel Goleman says in Emotional Intelligence, "The work of worrying-when it suceeds, is to rehearse what dangers are, and to reflect on ways to deal with them. But worry doesn't work well at all. New solutions and fresh ways of seeing a problem do not typically come from worrying, especially chronic worry. Chronic worriers worry about a wide range of things, most of which have no chance of happening; they read dangers into life's journey,"
The common advice from others is "Stop Worrying" or "Get out there and do something about it". By the very nature of the way the brain works, a lot of worry comes up unbidden, because it follows the reactive part of the mind or the low road of being unconscious.
You know about the self-fulfilling prophecy right? If you think and worry that business is bad, it can actually get worse. How can you get your brain and your business out of this loop?
The first step is to "Bee Aware". At Buzzen we teach women this crucial step in self-growth and business growth. When you can take a step back and be the observer of your business, your patterns and the impact of your thoughts, you can truly shift your thinking and create. Most of us have blind spots and it helps to have a support group to help you get a different perspective on what is not working.
The second step is to be part of a coaching program to help actively. When Jody England wrote "Attraction Actions, New "Bee"haviours for Creating the Life you Deserve" she realized that women needed principles and system of creating a life they deserve. The practices or "games" are fun and enlightening. Let me give you an example of the The Reframe Game.
Jody explains in her book, "The basic concept of the ReFrame/Something Better Game is that you turn something that doesn't look good to you into something that does look good (and more importantly feels good to you). You do this by creating a story that changes your thought process around a particular situation."
Let's look at some examples of reframing thoughts around the real estate market.
Something that doesn't look good-Homes are not selling and the market is bad
Something that does look good and feels better-Interest rates are below 6% and there are so many opportunities out there!
Which outlook will create more sales, more clients and more money? Make a list of places where you have judged this economy to be bad and play the reframe game today!
So this is a bit like reading an article on how to stay fit. You can read about it and your mind says "hmm, good ideas". And yet, how do you follow a path to change your thoughts? Or maybe you are curious and want to hear more about creating new thoughts around your business that are incompatible with worry.
Jody and I are doing a free call on Oct 14 at noon (trust me, it's a good use of a lunch hour) and we will be sharing more about the Buzzen process. You can do more worry-work or create a new reality for your business. Here's the link to "Get Your Business Buzzen, How to Create an Extraordinary, Profitable Business in any Economic Climate"
I also want to give a shout out to Michelle Oliver who will be doing an interview with us on Monday 10/13 at 11 AM on Blog Talk Radio. Michelle is also a member of Savor The Success and is with The Oliver Financial Group.
